When Rajaji got held up by a rail gateman

Rajaji, as the Governor-General Of India, was on his way to attend a function on the outskirts of New Delhi. There were no security guards as we see today provided for VVIPs, much less ,the carcade. President Sarvepalli Radhkrishnan, during his Mysore visits, used to mix freely with us, journalists. Smt Indira Gandhi used to crack jokes with us and no visit of Smt Gandhi was complete without having a group photo with scribes.

On one occasion at Mandakalli air-strip we had the group photo and it so happened that I was partially obstructing her from facing the camera directly. Quick came the remark from Smt Gandhi “ It is always the problem we face with six footers”. “Is it wrong to be born as a six-footer, Madam ?” I turned back and asked, “ Some times” , she quipped amidst allround laughter.

Well, coming back to the Rajaji incident, it so happened that at a railway crossing on the way the gate was found closed as a train was about to pass through. On learning that the train would take some time in coming, a senior official accompanying Rajaji approached the gateman and told him that it was the Governor General who was in the car. If the railway gates could be opened for a few moments, the country’s first citizen could reach the venue on time. It was reported that the gate man politely replied that there could not be two sets of rules, one for the “ big men and another for the rest of us”. As it turned out, Rajaji had to wait for the train to pass through before he could proceed for his function.

Rajaji ,who came to know all that was going on at the gate, asked the official to find out the name of the gateman.The very next day Rajaji wrote a letter to the Home Ministry commending the gateman’s devotion to duty and recommended to honour him with a suitable reward.

My thoughts went back to 1950s , as I was going through a recent media report (Aug 19), which referred to the shifting of a conscientious Karnataka's IAS officer V P Baligar from the post of principal secretary, Department of Panchayat Raj and Rural Development. The news as such did not come as a surprise to me, for there were reports earlier that Mr Baligar had refused to bend rules as some BJP MLAs wanted him to so as to accommodate their interests. These legislators and the officer were at logger heads and they were bringing pressure on Chief Minister to replace him. Mr Baligar had to pay the price, with his transfer, for retruning a file sent to him for action by Mr Udasi, Minister for Panchayat Raj and Rural Development. Mr Udasi is no Rajaji.

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